W Shaped Basket

This simple and easy to follow tutorial shows how you can weave the W shaped basket.

The basket is made with box knot or square knot. If you are unfamiliar with that knot, here is a tutorial that you might find helpful.

Two important features of this basket are:

The base of basket is made with running wire.

The sides of the basket are cross woven without running wire.

This is not the hardest basket in this series but if you are new to weaving and this is your very first basket, then you might find it a little difficult. If you are new, please try the classic basket and this cross basket before you attempt this one.

Things needed

I will be using two colors – white and blue.

Cut a total of 40 wires that are 2.75 meters long (20 white and 20 blue).

We will also be using running wire for the base. So keep aside some white wire for that as well.

Note: This length is enough if you are making the exact same basket as mine. If you want a basket that is taller or has a straight/ flat rim rather than W shaped rim with pointy tips at the top, then you have to take 3 meters long wire pieces.

Method

The base is done just like any other basket that is woven with running wire. As mentioned above, running wire for the base will be white. So leave 1.40 meters free and start adding the cut pieces to the running wire one by one.

Add 10 white pieces first followed by 20 blue pieces and then add the other 10 white wire pieces.

Once you have completed adding all the 40 cut pieces, leave 1.40 meters free and cut the running wire.

Note: This will be the middle row of the base. All other lines of the base will be adding above and below this one.

You can make the base as wide or as narrow as you want. But the important rule for this basket is this – The number of rows in the base should be divisible by 2 (meaning, it should be an even number).

Since the base will have 10 rows, this first row is not going to be exactly in the middle as it will have 4 more rows on one side and 5 rows on the other side. That should be okay.

To mark the middle row, put knots like this on both ends so you know which row is the middle row and start the second row above it.

So next step is adding more rows to the base.

In the same method, leave 1.40 meters free and using white wire as running wire add 4 rows above and 5 rows of running wire below.

4 rows added on one side of middle row.

5 rows added on the other side of base.

Now the base is done.

You will have 10 white wires coming out of the two ends of the base. Take two at a time and make knots. You will have a total of 5 knots.

Add one more row above these 5 knots by making knots with wires that intersect each other. Five pentagon shaped holes will be formed.

Continue this cross weaving till you form a triangle with just one knot at its peak.

Do this for wires at both ends of the base.

Before we start weaving the sides of the basket, we have to do something that will pull the base up and form the W shape.

We have to make 3 knots on each of the two long sides of the base.

The first knot will be in the middle. So find the two middle wires by counting from both edges and make a knot with those two wires.

Like I mentioned above, we have to add 3 knots before we weave the sides. This will be the middle knot.

Closeup view.

Next we have to add one knot on the left and one knot on the right of this knot. Count the wires from left end of base to the middle knot to find 2 middle wires and make a knot with them.

Do the same for the other end of the base as well. Find the middle two wires on the right side of the middle knot. Can you see the 3 knots in the image below?

Next we will start weaving from the left and right knots towards the middle knot. Don’t worry it is not as complicated as it sounds.

If you look at the left knot, it will have two wires coming out of it. Take the wire that is travelling right and start making knots and stop when you reach the middle knot.

Similarly, one wire will travels right till it reaches the left most knot of the base.

The blue wire has traveled left and white wire has traveled left.

Continue this process and all the blue wires will travel left and all the white wires will travel right and diamond shape will form. So for the second line, make a knot with two middle wires as shown below.

After second line

You will see the base getting pulled up and bending at 90 degrees like this.

A diamond has formed now.

Repeat the same for the other side of the middle knot.

The wires from the right side knot will travel till the middle knot on the left and will travel till the end on the right side as shown above.

If you have done this correctly, 2 pentagon shaped holes will form on both sides of the middle knot.

And two diamonds will form and they will look like this.

Do you see the white color wires coming out of both those diamonds? Cross weave them and they will form a white diamond.

You will be able to see the base taking the shape of the English letter W clearly now.

Now it is time to weave the short sides of the base. The will have a small white triangle each.

Cross weave the 5 wires coming out of them all way to the top of the white diamond we just completed. You can see the 5 wires coming out in the picture above.

Next cross weave 5 wires that travel in this direction from the other end of the base as shown above.

All the white wires have been woven. You will see blue wires that need to be woven.

Cross weave them and blue diamonds will form.

Tuck in the excess wires and W shaped basket is ready.

Note: In this basket, both the base and the top of the basket will have W shape. So the basket will be shorter at some parts (valleys) and taller at some parts (peaks). If you prefer a basket with even rim, take 3 meters wire pieces.